A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.
Links may expire , require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to al.cross@uky.edu. Follow us on Twitter @RuralJournalism

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Is there 'a farmer in all of us'? Recent episodes suggest agriculture is off the radar in D.C.

David Rogers, who has been covering the politics of agriculture for many years, sees "a real disconnect in American politics over farm policy," exemplified by Chrysler Corp.'s Super Bowl ad for Dodge Ram trucks ("For the farmer in all of us") appearing a few weeks after Congress's failure to pass a Farm Bill and days before a State of the Union speech in which President Obama made no mention of agriculture.

Writing for Politico, Rogers says Obama, after "talking a good game on the Farm Bill . . . when Iowa was in play in the presidential election," washed his hands of it at year's end, allowing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell "to pen a nine-month extension that infuriated many dairy farmers and left the two Ag committees out in the cold. . . . More than past administrations, this White House has taken a remarkably hands-off approach to farm issues."

House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., sees that as political calculation, but he "feels the same frustration with his own party leadership," Rogers writes, noting that Speaker John Boehner "blocked him from bringing the farm bill to the House floor." The problem was a battle between Lucas and tea-party Republicans who wanted bigger cuts in food stamps.

The larger problem is that fewer than 1 percent of Americans, about 2.3 million, farm, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "has estimated that about three-quarters of the U.S. production comes from a subset of about 200,000 to 300,000 farmers," Rogers reports. "The decline of regional newspapers — which were the heart of the old
farm press — contributes to this isolation. Major publications largely
ignored the farm bill debate last year, while many of the most
experienced ag reporters have migrated to more niche, subscriber-funded
newsletters."

The narrowing of farm interests could be risky, an unnamed "Republican aide who tracks farm issues" told Rogers: “No one is thinking about the promotion of agriculture in a big and bold
way. There are
numerous newsletters, coalitions, websites but they’re all serving the
same audience. They’re essentially all singing to the choir, but no one
is bringing any new folks to the church service.” (Read more)

About us: www.RuralJournalism.org

About The Rural Blog

This blog generally follows traditional journalistic standards. It's not about opinions, though you may read one here occasionally. It's about facts that we think will be useful to rural journalists, non-rural journalists who do rural stories, and others interested in rural issues. We don't try to be provocative, so we don't generate as many comments as most blogs with the level of traffic we have, but we certainly invite comments -- and contributions, to al.cross@uky.edu. Feel free to republish blog items, with credit to us and the original source.